Escaping the Repugnant Conclusion: Rank-discounted Utilitarianism with Variable Population

Geir Asheim and Stéphane Zuber

No 23/2012, Memorandum from Oslo University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Evaluation of climate policies and other issues requires a variable population setting where population is endogenously determined. We propose and axiomatize the rank-discounted critical-level utilitarian social welfare order. It is shown to ll out the space between critical-level utilitarianism and (a version of) critical-level leximin. Moreover, it satis fies many conditions and principles used to evaluate variable population criteria. In particular, it avoids the repugnant conclusion even when the critical level is zero.

Keywords: Social evaluation; population ethics; critical-level utilitarianism; social discounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D71 H43 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2012-08-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Escaping the repugnant conclusion: rank-discounted utilitarianism with variable population (2014)
Working Paper: Escaping the repugnant conclusion: rank-discounted utilitarianism with variable population (2014)
Working Paper: Escaping the repugnant conclusion: rank-discounted utilitarianism with variable population (2014)
Working Paper: Escaping the Repugnant Conclusion: Rank-Discounted Utilitarianism with Variable Population (2012)
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